Fragments

by Aya DeAniege

  “Then, well, we’ve got protection,” Blane said. “I understand what you mean, but I think we’ll be fine.”

  “What happens to our, I don’t know what you’d call it, our ground? If they attack tonight, and you dig us out of the hole?”

  The whole table was silent, but in a considering fashion. The Alphas seemed to be silently asking one another if I was right.

  I turned to Gerrid. His eyes were dark, he sighed and turned to me finally.

  “Rachel hasn’t stopped doing what she’s doing,” he said. “If you’d like, we can use science as well. Blane has a couple of things that would disarm the Alphas.”

  “Not using my stuff,” Blane said gruffly.

  “I could also mix up a batch of poisonous gas in your lab.”

  There was a moment of silence, of Blane considering that option. Then he gave a little shrug and ate some more of his lunch. I took that as meaning that Blane wasn’t going to stop Gerrid from using the facilities available to him.

  Matt’s mouth fell open at the shrug. He turned to Blane, then snapped his head toward Gerrid.

  “You will do no such thing inside my home!” Matt shouted.

  “Okay,” Gerrid said. “The other option is to let loose in here, but Blane has forbidden me from doing as much.”

  This time the Master made a little sound. An almost consideration. I turned my full attention to him as he sat there with a fork in his mouth, clearing mulling something over. Finally, the fork lowered and Blane sighed out just slightly.

  “That’s a fair enough comment,” Blane said. “However, I counter with tradition. Traditionally, one Alpha follows the rules of another Alpha while in his land. However, when the companion of an Alpha is threatened, that Alpha then makes whatever land he is on, his land. It’s a temporary ownership.”

  “They aren’t companions,” Gerrid said.

  The rest of the table moved in an uncomfortable silence. None of us wanted to voice our concerns. While I was interested in how the conversation would pan out, I also wanted a vote in the matter. They should have at least asked what we thought, then reacted to it, rather than ignoring us.

  “You’d only be protecting Rebecca’s interests, unless you were going to submit to Rachel as an Alpha under her, in which case it’s perfectly reasonable for you to protect your Alpha as well.”

  “True, but Rebecca still isn’t a companion.”

  “As far as they know Rebecca doesn’t exist,” Blane said. “If anyone is aware that she exists, they think she’s broken and therefore someone’s possession. That makes her a companion in their eyes.”

  “I’m not talking about for them, they don’t need a reason for my killing them, I’m talking about you and the actual law,” Gerrid protested.

  “As Master of this territory, I grant you permission to hunt, Gerrid. Is that sufficient enough?”

  “Hunt?” Gerrid asked.

  There was an edge of giddiness to his voice. When I glanced over at him, he was smiling. He bit his bottom lip and waggled his eyebrows at Blane.

  Turning back, I found Blane frowning at him. I think I had seen that look before, on my father’s face when we had gotten excited over some slip of his tongue. He wasn’t quite certain what he was agreeing to yet, but he was already certain he’d regret saying it.

  “Morgan is doing that, why are you getting excited?” he asked.

  “Morgan is culling a few Alphas,” Gerrid said.

  “Oh no,” Abraham gasped out. “Blane, Blane.”

  Blane glanced at Abraham, and held up his hand to silence the dominant Alpha. Abraham’s mouth had opened to add more, but at Blane’s motion, his mouth closed.

  There was that tenuous balance of dominance swinging toward Blane.

  Who then focused on Gerrid, who was far too excited about the prospect of hunting Blane’s land.

  “What would you do with that permission, Gerrid?”

  “Blane,” Abraham hissed out.

  “Shut up, Abraham, this is my table and you will respect that.”

  “Respect my foot up your ass,” Abraham snapped.

  Matt smacked the table and everyone dropped their fork and put their hands into their laps. I took a moment longer to respond, but that was because I didn’t know the rules. Matt glared around the table at everyone, but seemed to look over my head instead of directly at me.

  “You will not swear,” Matt snapped at all of us. “This is a table for civil discussion.”

  The Alphas lowered their heads as if ashamed.

  Rachel fought back a smile and looked at me, then to her lap quickly. Her shoulders shook just a little as she tried not to giggle. I lowered my head and stayed like that.

  “Oh, hurry up and get back to eating already,” Matt said.

  We all picked up our forks again. I continued eating as the Alphas seemed to consider one another. Their response was very much that of children who had had their hands smacked. I had heard of companions having that sort of control over their Alphas, but had never witnessed it up close.

  “Hunting,” Abraham said in an annoy tone, “means killing, Blane.”

  The Master didn’t even look up from his plate. He jabbed at his food in an irritated fashion, doing so several times before he scooped up a bit of the grains and finally looked up at Abraham.

  “It’s my territory, and I think I should be allowed to show the force that I deem fit in order to keep the peace,” Blane said. “Penelope, Morgan, and I will be busy tonight. I can’t send her out.”

  Abraham motioned to his chest with both hands and seemed to bite the inside of his lips at once, making his lips disappear and showing nothing more than a line where they had been. The motion was one of frustration and annoyance.

  I watched it happen, then turned to Gerrid.

  “If they’re stupid enough to attack a Master’s house, they deserve what they get, plain and simple,” Gerrid said. “You have to give the Masters teeth, Abraham. I think we could spin it as a one-off basis. I’ve gone hunting before, I’ve taken out Alphas before. We know that’s what I do. If you weren’t here, you know that’s what Blane would do anyhow. It’s what any Master would do.

  “I’ve seen the shallow graves. I know what others have done in the name of safety. The only Master who could say that he hasn’t killed an idiot is Blane here. The others? They just disappear and no one asks after them. What I’m talking about doing has been done by all the others, without your permission. If you want to lay down the law, you go and you do it with them, not with me.”

  Abraham growled at Gerrid, but didn’t swear.

  “Are you messing things up so that your heir will step up and take over?” Rachel asked Abraham all of a sudden.

  To which Abraham looked like she had stabbed him in the backside with a fork. He jumped in spot, sitting up straight and turning to her ever so slowly, but offered no verbal response.

  “Heir?” I asked.

  “Abraham has his heir almost sorted out. He’s been the top guy for a while now, right?”

  “I have been, yes,” Abraham said. “But I’m not certain he’s ready yet. I may need to select another. I am not messing this up, as you put it. I was unaware that the missing Alphas had been killed by my Masters, and I have no evidence of such a thing, which means I can do nothing about it.”

  “Gerrid will hunt my land if we are attacked, I’ll hear nothing else about it,” Blane said. “Unless you want to step in.”

  “I could,” Abraham said. “We are taking a stance of protection, but in the name of a Dom, I can’t. Not unless they attack Rebecca.”

  “So,” Rachel drew out the word. “You’re going to lock me up somewhere and only Rebecca will be seen?”

  “No, you’ll both be able to come and go as you please,” Blane said. “You need to figure this out, Rachel. Get your feet under you. Beat some Alphas down, I know you can do it. Just because I’ve been putting you into the floor more often doesn’t mean you’re weaker. You still win agains
t Penelope every time.”

  “Or I could just get nekkid and dance,” Rachel said sarcastically.

  “Or you could get naked. You don’t even need the dancing,” Matt said. “Naked woman and Alphas between the ages of twenty-five and sixty? They just, they stop functioning around naked women. Something about it just shuts their thinking heads down. You could probably stab each of them and they’d just stay there, like shooting fish in a barrel.”

  “I’m not going about naked!” Rachel protested. “That wasn’t a real offer, that was a joke!”

  “Well, don’t offer if it’s not real,” Matt said pointedly.

  “I’ll do it,” I said.

  “She’ll do it,” Matt said, motioning to me with his fork. “And the other Alphas wouldn’t know the difference.”

  “They would if she’s naked,” Blane and Gerrid muttered at the same time, somehow.

  I glared at both of them, then focused on Matt.

  “Didn’t get the cosmetic, unnecessary surgery done,” Matt said with a little nod. “That’s actually kind of smart. So. Not naked. What about in one of those sheer lingerie things? What are they called. They push your boobs up and hang about hip level?”

  “Teddies,” Penelope said. “I have a couple, I could lend you one.”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” Rachel said.

  “Why not?” Penelope asked.

  “At the masquerade, the entire room came to a stop at us fully clothed and covered. Any man who doesn’t come to a standstill when one of us walks into the room, deservers the pain we’ll give him. We are not pieces of meat to dangle out there and this is not the sort of situation where we would need to be just oh so obvious. No. No one is doing anything naked. Give me a gun, I’ll kill them myself.”

  “No guns here,” Blane said.

  “Then go buy me one.”

  “Since when do you know how to use a gun?” Matt asked.

  “We both do, actually,” I said. “Dad was pretty insistent. Hand-to-hand combat, and gun training. She’s a better shot than I am.”

  “Why?” Blane demanded.

  “Because guns kill Alphas,” I said. “And no one expects someone to bring a gun to an Alpha fight. It’s like bringing a nuke to a gun fight.”

  “Get the women a gun,” Abraham said.

  “That’s not how Alphas deal with things. Guns. Guns? Really Abraham? Guns?” Blane asked.

  “The other option is more dangerous,” Abraham protested.

  “Being a Dom is more dangerous,” Blane said. “It always has been and always will. Plain and simple. We risk our lives every day. But if we make them think that they can just pick up a gun and shoot those who they disagree with, we’re opening a whole other can of worms. No.

  “I could synthesis viruses, I could kill all of us with a genetic marker planted into those viruses. I have chosen not to because that is the coward’s way. We are not cowards. She is not a coward. And at no point do I think that they need guns because they are women or because they don’t carry the proper mutation to be an Alpha. I never would have agreed to her becoming Dom if I thought that she couldn’t handle things the way a real Alpha handles things.

  “No guns. End of discussion.”

  “Is it because you’re worried I’ll use it to pistol whip you?” Rachel asked.

  “You’ve proven you don’t need a gun to take down an Alpha.”

  “What if they mob me?”

  “Then I hope you enjoy being raped, because they won’t kill you,” Blane said.

  “I-I’m sorry, what?” Rachel demanded.

  “They’ll rape you,” Blane said matter of factly. “They’ll rape both of you and will breed you, Rachel, given the chance. They’d try with Rebecca but think she’s barren because of my contraceptive. And if you fail to protect yourself, I’d let it go on for a few months at least, before I made an attempt to save you.”

  “Oh. My. God.”

  “What are you going to do about it?” Blane asked.

  I was in full blown panic mode, as Rachel must have been as well. We looked to one another, then Rachel turned her attention back to Blane. I met his eyes around her head and my panic stopped.

  He didn’t mean it, he was just trying to get a rise out of us. To make Rachel angry. Something that he knew led him to poking her.

  “Why do you think it’s okay to threaten us with rape?” Rachel asked. “There are hundreds of ways to show dominance over another person. Rape is the tool of cowards.”

  “I’m simply being honest with you,” Blane said. “That is what they will do. They attempted to rape Penelope as well. Dear, what did you do to those ones?”

  Penelope made a little sound, almost like a moan.

  “I let them. Well, one. Micro penis on him, I wasn’t even certain he was in there. Was hoping for a little rough sex and a little breeding maybe. That didn’t work out for me. Didn’t work out for him either. When he failed to stimulate me in any fashion, I ripped his throat out with my teeth. Then I climbed on the next one and when he failed to rise to the occasion, I suffocated him as the others attempted to pull me off.

  “The last one got the idea, he managed to get me off. For his service, I allowed him to live and he told the others.”

  “I can do that?” I asked.

  “You’d want to do that?” Rachel demanded.

  I turned to Gerrid. He was watching me. He continued to watch me for a long minute or so. Then he turned to Penelope.

  “We’re calling them carriers and they’re basically making the rules for themselves. Can a carrier rape an Alpha and not be tried by the law?”

  “Would it be rape?” Penelope asked. “All the Alphas I’ve tackled and tried to do that with either enjoyed it, or I turned it into murder. I’m sorry, one of these girls climbing up on an Alpha? He’s not going to be claiming rape. He might think she’s gone crazy, but not rape. He’ll lay back and enjoy it.”

  “Until I kill him,” Gerrid added.

  “Why have sex with him first?” Rachel asked.

  “What if I want to?” I asked in response.

  Rachel just stared at me. She couldn’t understand.

  “The therapist says there is lingering damage and that there are two options for that explanation,” Blane said. “The first being that something is broken and that makes her a nymphomaniac, to which we were told to shut up, lay back and enjoy it. Oh, on that topic, Rebecca, Matt is off limits. Touch him and I will break you again.”

  “The other option?” I asked. “And why is my therapist talking to you?”

  “Only so that we don’t try to have you committed over it. The other option was that you may still be broken but now that you know how to fix it, you’ll seek out the source,” Blane said. “In which case we were told to lay back and take it.”

  “I’m not a nymphomaniac,” I said.

  “The therapist is a normal person,” Matt said. “We couldn’t bring in someone who has the genetic marker because companions are still working out the job situation. The only other available carrier who is a psychologist is an Alpha and we can’t trust him to keep his mouth shut. Not in your case.”

  “What’s that mean?” Rachel asked.

  “You’ve got the lowest libido I’ve ever seen in a companion,” Blane said to Rachel. “You put off sex so long that it’s turned into this terrible thing for you. Rebecca explored her sexuality, at least I’m guessing from your behaviour. She’s not a stranger to pleasure. She likes how it feels, and we’re basically just walking, talking blow-up dolls to her. I can’t really argue with that. And unlike with Alpha on Alpha interaction, or Alpha on regular woman, there are very few of us who would protest.”

  “So sexist,” Rachel said.

  “It may be, but, I’m sorry. I’m not going to complain. Or if I did, it would be in a half-hearted protest,” Blane said, glancing to Penelope. “Oh no, stop, please don’t, I’m supposed to breed with Penelope. That kind of thing.”

  “You should invit
e me to join,” Penelope said. “I’ve got this toy, I could strap it on and you could have so much fun.”

  “No anal,” I snapped.

  “Why?” Penelope asked. “Anal is fun.”

  “Owen didn’t take them to doctors, Penelope,” Blane said.

  “So?” Penelope demanded. She glared at Blane, he seemed to glare back and then her face fell. Penelope gagged a little and looked away. “That’s disgusting.”

  “Anyone want to explain to the man who enjoys anal?” Gerrid asked.

  “They had no contraceptive,” Blane said. “But Owen also had his breeders as free use. For all his followers, normal and Alpha alike. Frankly, I’m surprised there were fewer diseases spreading through his house. I’m banning the talk of anal unless you’re talking about two men.”

  “So, no strap on?” Gerrid asked me.

  “Strap onto who?” I demanded.

  “Onto you, to use on me.”

  “Not unless you want me to fuck you like a prison bitch,” I said.

  Gerrid turned to Matt, surprise playing over his features. I winced as I remembered the rule, and turned to Matt. He had his glass up, eyes on me.

  There was a very long moment of silence as the fear trickled down my limbs and made everything feel numb.

  Then Matt shrugged.

  “That one, I’ll allow. I can’t come up with another way to say that, which doesn’t involve swearing.”

  Chapter Nine

  After lunch, Gerrid took me to the lab and had me sit there and look pretty.

  That’s what he told me to do, to sit and look pretty, except that clearly wasn’t what was going on.

  He sat on a stool with wheels and fiddled with a computer, scooting this way and that for several minutes without comment. While Blane hadn’t said as much, I strongly suspected that the computers and machines were on all day, just in case Blane was struck by inspiration, or Matt as the case might be.

  There were no machines attached to me at first, but Gerrid wheeled around on that stool. After several minutes he said that he had it all up and running—again, I didn’t believe that—and looked at all kinds of things on screens and the like. Then he approached me and added some monitors to my head and neck, even to my chest and wrists. He swabbed those points with little cotton things and placed them into specimen containers, and took blood samples.